St Pancras Commercial Centre, London Borough of Camden

The Challenge

To breathe new life into this area of St Pancras, supporting the neighbourhood by providing office space, new housing alongside a significant amount of affordable housing, publicly accessible open space and retail uses at ground floor level,
while re-providing the industrial space that previously existed on site.
Another challenge was to open up the site to create high-quality and well-used public realm, forming an active new route between Camden Town and King’s Cross which currently is impermeable and invites crime and anti-social behaviour.

The Solution

The erosion of industrial land in central London is well publicised, as is the current housing crisis especially for affordable homes. The concept of ‘beds and sheds’ as a potential solution is receiving increasing recognition from the Government and the Greater London Authority. However, to date, there have been few examples of the concept being put into practice. The proposals at St Pancras Commercial Centre look to combine these two uses in an intelligent, sustainable and well thought out design successfully demonstrating how co-location can be achieved to deliver two key land use priorities for Camden and London.

The Results

We secured planning permission from Camden Council and sign off from the GLA for circa 16,000 sq m of new office space, 3,300 sq m of replacement light industrial floorspace, 800 sq m of new retail floorspace and 33 new residential units of which 14 are affordable. The scheme also contributes to improvements to the public realm including creating a new public open space and pedestrian routes through the site.